Yes, but you cannot transfer them out.
You CAN get the assets back in a revocable trust. You CANNOT get the assets back in an irrevocable trust. An irrevocable trust cannot be terminated by the settler once it has been created. The settler transfers their assets into the trust and no longer has any rights of ownership in that property or the trust. The main reasons for setting up an irrevocable trust are estate planning and tax purposes. Generally, assets in an irrevocable trust are shielded from creditors.
The grantor has no control over the assets in an irrevocable trust. Those assets are under the control of the trustee.
Can you protect your assets from bankruptcy by placing them in an irrevocable trust?
The IRS can seize an irrevocable trust if the trust owes unpaid taxes and the assets within the trust are considered part of the taxpayer's overall assets.
A Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) is an irrevocable trust that allows the grantor to transfer assets to beneficiaries while retaining an annuity interest for a specified period. Once the GRAT is established, the terms cannot be changed or revoked by the grantor.
It depends on how the trust is drafted. A properly drafted irrevocable trust, in Florida, will be invisible to Medicaid (Medicare doesn't factor assets into whether or not one is qualified the way Medicaid does). However, transfers of assets into the trust must be done 5 years before applying to medicaid or medicaid will assess a transfer penalty (this is referred to as the "five year lookback"). The transfer penalty is a period of ineligibility for certain medicaid benefits depending on the size of the transfer. As a result, irrevocable trust planning would not be appropriate for all Medicaid planning scenarios.
Yes, the transfer is not taxable, but payments from the trust to OTHERS may have tax implications (i.e., other than to your spouse, charities, 529s, etc).
Yes
The assets in an irrevocable trust are legally owned by the trust itself, not by any individual. The trustee is responsible for managing the trust assets for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries as outlined in the trust agreement.
No. You cannot maintain any control over the assets in a irrevocable trust. Doing so will cause the trust to fail and leave you exposed to creditors and taxes.
Generally, an irrevocable living trust is created in order to transfer assets from a parent's estate to the trust in order to avoid inheritance taxes on the parent's estate, protect assets from creditors, make charitable contributions and other purposes. The key thing about the irrevocable trust is that the trustor (the trust maker) can not later change the terms of the trust once the documents have been signed.
Liability insurance. An irrevocable trust made with the help of an attorney.